OKCoin Exchange Launches in US Offering Fiat-to-Crypto Trading

Cryptocurrency exchange OKCoin has launched a branch in the U.S. market offering trading services between U.S. dollars and several major cryptocurrencies.

According to OKCoin’s website on Friday, the exchange has already launched the new offering and is now accepting U.S. dollars deposits and withdrawals, as well as trading against bitcoin, bitcoin cash, litecoin, ethereum and ethereum classic.

For the new offshoot, the company filed a money service business (MSB) registration with the U.S. Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN) in November 2017. The document shows that the legal entity behind the exchange is called OKCoin USA Inc. and is based in Mountain View, California.

However, OKCoin states on its website that the fiat-to-crypto trading service is currently limited to investors in California – a limitation indicated in the initial MSB filing.

The news follows a report weeks ago revealing a similar move by Huobi, which launched a purely crypto-to-crypto trading service this month for all 50 states in the U.S. through a partner entity dubbed HBUS.

Earlier this year, HBUS also filed an MSB registration with FinCEN. However, Li Lin, co-founder and chief executive of Huobi, noted at the time that registering with FinCEN does not resolve all of the possible regulatory issues that come with operating within the U.S.

As previously reported by CoinDesk, both OKCoin and Huobi were once two of the three major crypto exchanges in China before the notable trading ban issued by the People’s Bank of China in September 2017.

Following the regulatory clampdown, the exchanges shifted their businesses overseas with a focus largely on crypto-to-crypto trading.